Bullying doesn’t only happen to children: Adults in a professional environment aren’t exempt from being victims, and even more disturbingly, perpetrators of workplace bullying; yet, it closely resembles what one might expect to see in a schoolyard, minus perhaps the pigtail pulling. The Workplace Bullying Institute views victimization in a professional context as the deliberate, repeated, health-harming mistreatment of a person/s by one or more perpetrator/s, with devastating consequences for the psychological/emotional/physical wellbeing of the victim.

What does workplace bullying look like?

The picture isn’t pretty. Workplace bullying can manifest in the following ways:

• Verbal abuse (e.g., yelling; manipulation; derogatory remarks).

• Threatening, humiliating, or intimidating offensive verbal/non-verbal conduct (e.g., using physical force with a colleague; public reprimands).

• Work interference or sabotage which prevents work from getting done (e.g., deliberately setting unrealistic deadlines or micromanaging to cause distress; denying an employee access to resources, projects, or opportunities).

Why should employers intervene when workplace bullying comes to light?

Adults, just like children, aren’t always able to protect themselves from mistreatment. In a work context, victimization becomes pronounced when people in positions of power (such as executives, managers, and team leaders) either abuse their authority or do nothing to rectify a workplace climate that supports a hostile environment.

If something in a workplace disrupts its employees, chances are great that this disruption will have a spill-over effect for the organization at large, which includes:

• Legal violations and consequent reputational damage. The state of California, as an example, mandates abusive conduct (workplace bullying) training as part of mandatory sexual harassment training. Such training serves to highlight the consequences for hostile behavior and to incentivize employers to act against such behavior. Reputational damage can either be suffered by the organization that stood idly by while one of their employees suffered; by the victim, if bullying behavior included, for example, the spreading of false information; or by the bully, if their behavior is appropriately discouraged.

• A profound impact on productivity, morale, and employee retention – and thus the organization’s bottom-line.

Courses to promote a hostility-free working environment

Coggno has selected the following courses to assist organizations in simplifying their bullying prevention initiatives:

• Course 1: Workplace Bullying Prevention Made Simple
• Course 2: Abusive Conduct in the Workplace: AB2053 Training
• Course 3: How to Prevent and Respond to Bullying at Work: Refresher (HTML 5) Course
• Course 4: Harassment Prevention Made Simple

See all courses, click here.

*Discounts applicable: 20% OFF, valid thru Jan. 5th, 2018

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